Apparatus for cracking and/or splitting nuts having edible nut meats, for example macadamia and Brazil nuts, walnuts, chestnuts and etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,855 to Brazil discloses a nutcracker having a wedged shaped portion extending rearwardly of the anvil, a rear head mounted by a plunger that is longitudinally movable in a frame hole, and a lever pivotally attached to the frame and pivotally connected to a link that in turn is pivotally connected to the plunger. U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,468 discloses a nutcracker having a first jaw threadedly mounted by a frame front end portion and a second jaw longitudinally movable by a lever with a link pivotally connected to the second jaw and lever, each jaw having a recess opening toward the other.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,223,133 to Broakey discloses a frame having a handle integrally joined thereto, a recessed front jaw mounted by the front end portion of the frame, a plunger longitudinally movably mounted by the frame that mounts a recessed jaw for movement therewith and having a plurality of ratchet teeth, a lever pivotally mounted by the handle, a ratchet pivotally mounted by the lever and having a cam face, a spring for constantly urging the ratchet into engagement with the plunger ratchet teeth, and a stop member on the frame for swinging the ratchet out of engagement with the ratchet teeth when the hand grip part of the lever is pivoted away from the handle. The plunger mounts friction material resiliently transversely urged into engagement with the frame to tend to hold the plunger in a longitudinally adjusted position, the rear jaw being manually graspable to move the plunger to a position the rear jaw abuts against the nut.
In order to provide improved apparatus to crack nuts, especially hard nuts such as macadamia nuts, this invention has been made.